An engineer working at Facebook has invented a new unit of time called a flick which is designed to help developers keep video effects in sync, according to a description on the code-sharing database GitHub.

Flick is derived from frame-tick, and is defined in the programming language C++, which is used to generate visual effects for film, television and other media. In real terms, it represents 1/705,600,000 of a second, and is the next unit of time up after a nanosecond.

The unit is intended to give programmers a way to measure the time between media frames without using fractions, and while its unlikely to have much impact on your day-to-day life, it could help create better virtual reality experiences and game graphics, reducing errors such as stutters and latency.

The creator of the flick, Christopher Horvath, publicly shared the idea on Facebook in early 2017, and then made modifications to the measurement based on feedback from fellow developers.

The flick is not the first unit of time designed by a major corporation. Back in 1998, watch manufacturer Swatch introduced Internet Time, which divides the day up into 1,000 .beats. The measurement, which is equal to one minute and 26.4 seconds, was designed to eliminate the need for time zones in a globally-connected society, but has not caught on.